Oct. 29 (UPI) — Voters in the Netherlands were headed to the polls on Wednesday five months after Prime Minister Richard Schoof’s four-party coalition collapsed after Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party pulled the plug amid a battle over migration.
Wilders was eyeing a repeat of November 2023 when his PVV party won the most votes but his prospects of governing appeared signficantly diminshed by the fact the parties that enabled him to ultimately cobble together a government have made it clear they will not work him this time around.
The country is also grappling with very serious problems ranging from a cost of living crisis and exorbitant rents amid a serious housing shortage to skyrocketing healthcare costs and job security.
That meant the second-placed party, rather than the “winner,” was likely key, analysts said, as they would be the kingmaker calling the shots on who gets to form the government, with a centrist administration the most likely outcome.
However, with amost 50% of voters on the fence on who they intend to cast their ballot for of the 27 parties on offer, the race remained too narrow to predict.
Wilders — a political outsider who has spent the past two decades under police protection due to his outspoken views — has said it would be the death of democracy if the PVV emerged the largest party but was excluded from government.
On Wednesday he said that it was down to whatever the electorate decided on the day, but that he was positive.
“It’s a close call — four or five different parties. I’m confident,” he said after casting his vote at City Hall in The Hague circled by his security detail.
In 2023, his party won 37 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives with only around 17 votes separating it from the GroenLinks-Labor Party Alliance, People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, and the New Social Contract, a traditional European Christian-democratic party.
The populist Wilders who has previously railed against Islam, migration and the European Union has since toned down his rhetoric so as not to alienate more mainstream voters.
In doing so he may fail to present a sufficiently attractive a prospect to get out the right-wing vote while centrist voters have plenty of other options, according to Amsterdam University political scientist Matthijs Rooduijn.
“Right now I don’t think it’s very likely Wilders will be part of a government coalition,” said Rooduijn.
The country’s 10,000 polling stations were scheduled to close at 9 p.m. local time with exit polls results expected shortly after and official results sometime on Thursday.
